'Everyone sounds like a dalek!': Brain tumour leaves woman with robotic ringing in her ears

Katie Barnes was terrified of the Doctor Who villains as a child, but is now reminded of them every single day

Daleks: Katie will hear voices differently for the rest of her life (Photo: SWNS)

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A woman who was terrified of Daleks as a child has been left with robotic voices ringing in her ears after being diagnosed with a rare brain tumour.

Katie Barnes, 46, first started to lose her hearing in April 2012, before a constant ringing began in her left ear, making it difficult to hear her clients while she worked as a hairdresser.

But things were set to get worse, when a few months later all the voices in her salon started to sound robotic - just like the Doctor Who villains she was once petrified of.

Katie, from Northfleet in Kent, said: "I had a constant ringing in my left ear and everyone sounded like Daleks.

"I was terrified of the Daleks as a child and I used to have to run and hide under my bed - and now I have to hear them all the time.

"It was bearable because I had my good ear but if I blocked the right ear it genuinely sounded like I was in an episode of Doctor Who - it made me think I was going deaf.

"For a while when I put my phone on my ear I just thought it was a constant bad line and I even changed my phone. "

Mum-of-two Katie was first diagnosed with fibromyalgia - a long-term pain condition - but when she also started to lose her balance she went back to her GP for an MRI scan, which revealed she had a very rare brain tumour called acoustic neuroma.

Doctors have managed to shrink the tumour and hope it will now stay under control as an operation would be very risky, but Katie's balance and hearing will be affected for the rest of her life.

Katie is treated for her rare brain tumor (Photo: SWNS)

Katie, who lives with husband Paul, 46, added: "It seems to have improved since I was told it was shrinking, a hearing aid has stopped the ringing and I'm able to stand and move around.

"Unfortunately everyone still sounds like a dalek but I will just have to get used to that.

"The tumour is benign luckily but it's on just on the edge of my brain stem so it's going to be watched very closely.

"If it does seem to suddenly start growing I will have to have surgery, and with it being so close to the brain it could leave me paralysed facially.

"It shows brain tumours come in many different disguises and I had no idea that something like a hearing problem could be the sign of one."